Rob Machado benefit concert anticipates another sell out

SOLANA BEACH — The benefit concert that has continually sold out since its inception looks to be well on its way to doing so again.

On Nov. 11, Encinitas’ own Rob Machado will, for the fourth year, fill up the Belly Up in Solana Beach for his Rob Machado Foundation benefit concert.

The size and intimacy of the Belly Up are just some of the reasons Machado can’t imagine hosting the benefit anywhere else — that and continuing to attract an impressive line up of performers and bands, which make the evening that much more special, he said.

“What we wanted to create initially was just a really good night of music with great musicians, something special and different. And I think we’ve been very successful in doing that. And now, we’ve gotten to a place where I think our audience knows that it’s going to be a really good night of music,” said Machado, one of the world’s top surfers.

With this year’s lineup featuring all-acoustic performances from Matt Nathanason, Brett Dennen, Andrew Wessen and Tim Curren, Machado promises a few collaborations between the musicians on stage and certainly some surprises.

But the event isn’t just about the music. The benefit serves to raise funds for the Rob Machado Foundation, with proceeds going to environmental programs that have a focus on children’s environmental initiatives.

This year, those initiatives include:

• Donating 10 filtered water stations to schools in San Diego County with plans to also donate four stations to the Newport School district.

• Sponsorship of Cardiff Elementary School’s annual Ocean Week, promoting ocean education for young students. The Foundation will also donate reusable water bottles and stainless steel cups for the school’s Boo-by-the-Sea fundraiser, eliminating the need for single-use plastic water bottles at the event.

• Spearheading a record-breaking waste diversion effort at the 2015 Switchfoot Bro-Am, a beach concert/surf contest attended by 13,000 people. The efforts of 90 volunteers resulted in the collection of nearly 3,000 pounds of waste. Recycling and composting diverted 83 percent of the waste (1.2 tons) from the landfill.

• Serving as eco-sponsors of the Cardiff Surf Classic, providing all the recycling support for a two-day surf contest and setting up two water stations on site in order to prevent the need for single-use plastic water bottles at the October 2015 event.

Once the benefit concert is over, Machado said he hopes to see people leaving the Belly Up happy and content that they saw a really good night of music.

“Obviously, out of that, raising some good funds for all of the programs that we have going — that’s the main goal,” he said.

Some tickets are still available and can be purchased online at bellyup.com.

More information on the foundation is available at robmachadofoundation.org.